Free The Fallen 4 by Thomas E. Sniegoski

something about pocket dimensions and one reality being attached to another, but she would grow impatient with his confusion and just say that it was magick and leave it at that. Magick was the answer to a lot of complicated questions, he’d noticed since coming to be with the Nephilim.
    “Be careful here,” Lorelei said, touching his hand that rested on her shoulder, allowing her to guide him.
    Since his eyesight had started to fail, Dusty had required some assistance in getting around the old orphanage, especially in the library. And most especially in this section, since they’d had a little incident with an angel falling from the heavens and through the floor. Aaron had talked about getting some wood to cover up the hole, but they’d been a tad busy lately.
    They gave the opening a wide berth as they made their way to the section of the library where the most powerful books and scrolls pertaining to angel magick— Archon magick —were kept.
    Lorelei had been bringing him here a lot lately. She was attempting to familiarize him with the various ancient writings and spells for any number of bizarre needs. From keeping the generators that supplied the school’s power going to summoning doves for spells that required a life sacrifice, it seemed these texts held all of the answers.
    From what Dusty could guess, the Archons were pretty powerful, scary angels.
    Though, to be truthful, since getting involved in all this insanity, Dusty had yet to meet an angel that wasn’t scary in one way or another.
    “So what’s on the agenda for today?” he asked, leaning against the table in the center of the library nook.
    “The usual,” Lorelei said, selecting the books she would need for whatever spells she planned to cast. As she moved swiftly from shelf to shelf, he heard the squeak of the tiny mouse that always seemed to be clinging to her shoulder.
    “Let me guess,” Dusty said. “We need to find the biggest, nastiest, most dangerous threats so Aaron and the others can go and kill them. Then we’ll make sure that the security spells around the property are in order, and finally we’ll look for Lucifer.”
    He watched as Lorelei’s shadowy figure turned from the wall of books to face him.
    “Let’s not say that last one too loudly,” she warned.
    Lorelei had been pushing herself pretty hard to find the wayward Lucifer, and Aaron had given her explicit orders not to do it anymore. Unbeknownst to him, she wasn’t listening, which partially explained the rough condition she was in. That and the spells she had been casting to calm Dusty’s mind.
    The images and sounds rushing through his head had quieted enough that Dusty could function, but it wouldn’t be long before the static was back and Lorelei would have to help him again.
    “But today we’re going to do things a little bit differently,” she said.
    “Okay.” His curiosity was piqued.
    “Today I’m going to let you do the heavy lifting.”
    Dusty smiled, not quite sure what she meant. “What, we’re moving furniture too? Or—”
    “You’re going to do some magick,” she interrupted.
    Milton squeaked, as if as shocked as Dusty was by this news.
    “You’re kidding,” Dusty said. “What do I know about magick?”
    “You were chosen to carry the Instrument, a creation of God Himself.”
    “Yeah. And if you remember, I was responsible for just about destroying the world,” he added wryly.
    “That doesn’t change the fact that you were given this responsibility, and that you were able to control the Instrument’s power,” Lorelei said. “At least to a point.”
    He thought for a moment about what she said. “I don’t know,” he said warily.
    “Why do you think I’ve been having you hang around me all this time?” Lorelei asked him. “The magick needed to become familiar with you. I needed to know if it would like you.”
    “Like me?” he repeated. “You make it sound as if the magick’s alive or something.”
    “Archon magick